Dress shopping, bacheloretting and rugby. Plenty traditional.

Wedding dress shopping is SO weird. I had no idea that sales ladies would literally go into the tiny dressing room with me. Or that there are no mirrors in there so I’d HAVE to go outside into the store where there may or may not be less fit ladies… trying on the same dress as me… who then gawk and tell me how beautiful I am and then seconds later I have to tell the saleslady all the things I hate about the dress.

Awkward.

I also didn’t know petticoats still existed. They have all KINDS of stuff that sucks your body in and makes you feel like you’re wearing a straight jacket. How am I supposed to sit down or do my best dance moves in a straight jacket? Sounds terrible. Definitely not doing that.

I’ll mostly spare you my other rant about spending so much money on a dress you only wear once. So many people talk about “great deals” and then they say the “great deal price” and even though I smile and nod and pretend to agree, in my head I’m just like…

that
is not a deal.
that’s robbery!

Anyhow, for all you future brides out there… I think dress shopping is a very weird experience. The good news is after several hours of it you can always treat yourself to ice cream or BBQ like my mom and I did.

On Saturday I had a whole DAY of bachelorette shenanigans. At noon a bunch of friends came over to my mom’s house for a brunch prepared by my big brother. Delicious quiche, fresh fruit salad, pumpkin bread, bloody marys and mimosas. On top of all that the sun was shining so we spent a lot of time sitting outside. (I never fully appreciated Spring until I spent a winter in Boston.)

Later on I went out for dinner at Rustico with just the bridesmaids and my mom. I stuffed myself with more delicious food and more delicious beer, so thank god my dress didn’t require a corset. Still plenty of flexibility for dancing later on with the rest of the rugby crew at the Light Horse. There was a cake, inappropriate blow up toys and a guy in a gorilla costume. We topped off the night by initiating two new members into TK, our very very important fake sorority. It was everything I could’ve hoped for in debaucherous day with the leading ladies of my life!

Sunday morning required a somewhat painful 8am wake up but was well worth it. I headed out to my sister’s 7s tournament. I ate grits in the car, a breakfast sandwich on the sideline, got to hang out more with the whole fam, and even got to brush up on Comerian logic with my old rugby coach!

I mean just look at my sis play…

There were a few times on Sunday morning when nostalgia got me all choked up. UVA was still doing the same Cool Runnings cheer we used to do…

When you look in the mirror what do you see?
I see PRIDE
I see POWER
I see a badass mother who don’t take no CRAP from nobody.

What an important MESSAGE!
Not only to pump you up for a rugby game but… for LIFE!

2004 to 2015

It was all just very… re-inspiring. It reminded me why I joined the rugby team in the first place. I wanted to tell all those college girls at the tournament, HEY! Listen! It’s not easy to find strong, smart, badass women like these. So stick with them! I played 10 years ago and my former teammates have reunited for every important life cycle event since, for better or worse. Birthdays, weddings, divorces, babies… Heck, I just saw them all last night for my bachelorette party!

At one point my florist asked me if I was traditional.
I had to think for a minute.

I don’t want to spend a lot of money and
I don’t care about the table linen sheen and
I most certainly won’t be wearing a petticoat
… but that doesn’t mean I don’t value tradition.

I’m shopping for a white dress and just had a bachelorette party.

We ate.
We drank.
We danced.
We laughed.

We celebrated.

And isn’t that kind of… it?

I had a great weekend that left me overwhelmed with gratitude for all the leading ladies in my life. No petticoat or table linens required. And it made me realize that I value the core of traditions… I just couldn’t care less about the frills.

Sara, loved this little summary of your long weekend here! There is more weirdness to come as you get closer to the big wedding day! And remember, on your wedding day, you must have on something borrowed, something blue, something old and something new, hahaha. And of course there’s the whole weirdness of photographing the shoes and rings and smashing the cake into each other mouths/faces.